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Monday, October 29, 2012

Second star to the right and straight on till morning…

Happy Halloween! I love planning for and creating my kiddos’ costumes ~ it makes me giddy each year. This year was a bit of a challenge because I had to plead my case with my kids to do a theme. We’re talking multiple conversations over dinner with me saying, “but honey, EVERYONE is going to be dressed as Batman” while Brian sits next to me, shaking his head. I did some research and came to the table with a list of 8-10 trios and we finally decided on a group that everyone agreed on. Whew. The themed Halloween lives on (at least for one more year!).

Once we picked a direction, I looked around online to find some inspiration and tried to figure out what I would buy versus what I could make. In the end, I decided to make everything except Grace’s wings and Ben’s pants. Here was my costume inspiration board:

So fun, right?! This was actually my plan for last year, but we ended up doing this instead. I’m glad we saved this one, because Noah is pretty stinkin’ cute as a toddling raccoon (as opposed to a raccoon that just lays in a stroller – which is what he did last year.)

Anyway – on to the costuming fun. I tackled Gracie’s costume first (because the tutorial I read said that it took two weeks!) It ended up going a little quicker than that. I referenced this tutorial and changed it up a little bit because I didn’t want to mess with glue and flowers. I LOVE how it turned out. My favorite part is the little bells that tinkle when Gracie moves. A Tinker Bell that tinkles = PERFECTION. Gracie was my hardest sell for this Halloween theme, but she quickly got on board once her costume was done. She loves it. Can you tell?

She cracks me. She wanted to wear her wings around the house the day after they came in the mail. This was our conversation:

G: Tan I pway wif my wings?

Me: Well, honey, how about we not play with them until Halloween so they stay nice and safe… after that we can play with them anytime we want.

G: But Mommy, I NEED to fwy!

So, Gracie’s been wearing her wings. You can’t argue with that. Sometimes a girl just NEEDS to fwy!! :)

Noah’s costume was next up. I wanted him to be one of the Lost Boys (the ones that look like they’re wearing animal jammies – from the Original Disney Peter Pan). I bought this pattern at a 99¢ sale.

I took the body of the dinosaur and the head of the mouse and tweaked them a little bit to get this:

I LOVE how this came out! The hoodie with ears, the tail, the slouchy body suit. I just want to EAT. HIM. UP. Noah’s natural mischievousness adds that little something extra and puts this one right over the top for me.

The final (and pivotal) piece of this puzzle is, of course, Mr. Pan himself. Ben was excited about being Peter. (His favorite parts are the dagger and the feather in the cap.) For Benji’s costume, I started with a pair of green leggings that I found at Wal-mart (yay for not having to make something from scratch). For his top, I bought a men’s XL t-shirt from Jo-ann’s. I used Ben’s Aggie football jersey as a guide to sketch out a pattern because it had the fit and length that I wanted. This was the first time I’ve made my own pattern for something, and it was actually easier than I thought. I followed the tutorial here. (I also used one of her tutorials for his belt and his hat.) I adjusted the neckline to mimic Peter Pan’s and added a collar (that I sort of did wrong – but you can’t really tell). There’s actually a pretty good diy collar here that I should have paid a teeny bit more attention to. Live and learn.

At the end of the day, all that matters is my not so little man is pumped about his costume!

He can fly, he can fly, he can fly!

So that’s it. It’s two days before Halloween and the costumes are complete! I love finishing early and getting pics before the “Big Day”. Wednesday will be all about spending time with neighbors and getting hopped up on sugar, and not about appeasing the Momma-razzi. Plus, I just love getting a sneak peek of how cute they all look together… kind of makes me want to dress them up every day of the year!

A special shout out to my hubby who pretty much took over everything having to do with the kids this weekend so that I could get these done. He is the ONLY reason that I can do these fun “extras”. Love ya, Babe. Sorry I didn’t have time to make you a costume. You would have made a very handsome Captain Hook (and I guess that leaves me with Smee?).